technology I'm having some computer troubles.

[Zygen 6,066]

Hey y'all I need some advice from some people who may know what to do, I've been having some issues with my computer lately. And I've been getting so frustrated when I tried to fix it that I've just ended up procrastinating alot, but I finally think I'm going to try and fix them. Hopefully it isn't to serious to the point where it can't be fixed.

 

Anyways heres my issue, or issues really. Several months ago, I had a problem with my antivirus where it wouldn't work, it told me it was expired, but my mom said we're suppose to have it still, and when I tried to run it all it would do is give me a white box, now it won't show up at all(It was Mcaffe btw.) So eventuelly I installed AVG and that worked for the month I had of the free trial(because for somereason I didn't get the free version, but the free trial.)

 

Anyways after I did some cleaning of my computer and virus scans with it, it eventually expired, then a week or so passed, and suddenly every time I opened my web browser I got an error that popped up like 50 times. It even happened when I opened new windows. Eventually this stopped after some rebooting and reinstallation(which took forever having to close all those out ) However I could never get Mcaffe to work, and my AVG would not install the free version, I had cleaned out the old version, but the new version just wouldn't install.

 

I waited for a few months actually, and one day I was going to try and remove some startup programs, and it turns out, I can't. I found out that my windows defender is connected to that and will not start, it literally just doesn't start it won't load or anything. No error or anything either. I was puzzled so I decided to try and download AVG again, it still gave me an error.. I worked a bit more and finally got it to the point where I could get it downloaded... And then it told me I needed to clean out my registry I think?(I'm pretty sure its that, can't remember anything else it was suppose to be.) Of course its risky business running around without virus protection so you have to be extra caution, therefore I don't really trust just finding a random registry cleaner, and I can't do it with my virus protection because well.. Basically I don't have one currently.

 

And thats basically where I've got to so far.

 

I've also had issues with my computer just kinda stopping(I think that may be firefox's fault, or me opening to much to fast for my computer) And sometimes it'll give me the blue screen and just flat out crash. Its random on how often, because it'll have sometimes where it'll crash like once a day, but its been a while since Its actually done that. Other then that, and my virus protection i had not working and windows defender or whatever not working it hasn't shown any other problems, but I'm still kinda worried something may be in my computer and I should be more worried, for all I know it could just be the simple fact that I haven't been able to do any registry cleaning virus scans or defrags without any anti virus, but I'm still a bit worried..

 

 

Anyways I'm hoping someone may be able to offer some help, I am sorta unsure what to do exactly, but I feel somewhat unsafe, and I really don't want to have to invest in another computer any sooner then I have to.

 

I may be absent from viewing this post for a bit, so i'll post a bit of computer info (Not a whole specs list, I don't see the point in that.) Just in case someone asks while I'm gone.

 

My computer is a Dell XPS M1530

It is about 3 1/2ish years old.

I do have a fan for it that works and a fan underneath extra.

It has 4 gigs of Ram

I'm running Windows Vista(Yes Vista sucks.)

I have been without an official virus protection program for several months now, I'd like to find out how to fix those registry error's or whatevers causing it not to install, but a bit iffy on how, i'd prefer using it since Mcaffe doesn't work and AVG is the only other one I'm familer with and trust.

 

I guess thats it, I may not be around to reply depending on how things go, but I hope some people can have time to read this and post me a bit of help!

 

Thanks in advance if you atleast attempted to help ( I Know my post is long and I rambled so it can be hard to read).

Edited January 5, 2013 by Zygen

[Creamy Arty 6,252]

First of all, you shouldn't have more than one antivirus program installed at a time. They tend to conflict with each other. McAfee is a solid contender for the worst antivirus program ever made, and any machine that has it installed is going to be sluggish and potentially unstable. Throw in a bunch of other things trying to do the same job and you're going to have a bad time.

 

Windows Defender is an antispyware program that comes pre-installed on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Whenever another application is installed to do that job, Windows Defender is automatically disabled in Windows 7 to prevent any conflicts. Apparently Vista doesn't do that. I learned something today.

 

Although all of your antivirus software has expired, the first thing you need to do is get rid of it, all of it. Uninstall McAfee, AVG, and whatever else you may have installed, and disable Windows Defender. You're not quite as vulnerable as you may think when running without protection. Using common sense when cruising the internet is the best defense, and will get you pretty far. It's possible never to use any protection and never have a problem, though it's not prudent to do so.

 

Your registry is probably fine. AVG sells another product for "cleaning" registries, and they're just trying to get you to buy it. After you've removed all antivirus software you currently have installed, download and install CCleaner. You don't have to change any options or anything. Just go to the Registry tab on the left, click Scan for Issues, then Fix Selected Issues once it's done with the scan. Then go to the Cleaner tab on the left and do the same thing, but say yes to the question that pops up asking if you want to "intelligently scan for stuff to keep" or something like that. I get the feeling that it's going to find a lot of things to straighten up on your computer.

 

After all of that is done, your computer will hopefully be stable and a lot faster. Install Microsoft Security Essentials and let it update and run a scan on your system. It's a free application and is all the protection you really need.

[Zygen 6,066]

First of all, you shouldn't have more than one antivirus program installed at a time. They tend to conflict with each other. McAfee is a solid contender for the worst antivirus program ever made, and any machine that has it installed is going to be sluggish and potentially unstable. Throw in a bunch of other things trying to do the same job and you're going to have a bad time.

 

Windows Defender is an antispyware program that comes pre-installed on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Whenever another application is installed to do that job, Windows Defender is automatically disabled in Windows 7 to prevent any conflicts. Apparently Vista doesn't do that. I learned something today.

 

Although all of your antivirus software has expired, the first thing you need to do is get rid of it, all of it. Uninstall McAfee, AVG, and whatever else you may have installed, and disable Windows Defender. You're not quite as vulnerable as you may think when running without protection. Using common sense when cruising the internet is the best defense, and will get you pretty far. It's possible never to use any protection and never have a problem, though it's not prudent to do so.

 

Your registry is probably fine. AVG sells another product for "cleaning" registries, and they're just trying to get you to buy it. After you've removed all antivirus software you currently have installed, download and install CCleaner. You don't have to change any options or anything. Just go to the Registry tab on the left, click Scan for Issues, then Fix Selected Issues once it's done with the scan. Then go to the Cleaner tab on the left and do the same thing, but say yes to the question that pops up asking if you want to "intelligently scan for stuff to keep" or something like that. I get the feeling that it's going to find a lot of things to straighten up on your computer.

 

After all of that is done, your computer will hopefully be stable and a lot faster. Install Microsoft Security Essentials and let it update and run a scan on your system. It's a free application and is all the protection you really need.

 

Ok well I got rid of my virus programs from the program list, and then I installed CC cleaner. I cleaned my computer of like 4 Gigs of junk files, then I got rid of like 3000+ Registry errors.

Then I installed security essentials, but it won't run for some reason.. And then I checked security center and it says that both mcaffe and security center are running..

It says they're both apparently on which means they're installed? But I deleted them with the uninstall... .

 

Any ideas? I got nothing, I can't toggle either. On or off. And it doesn't seem to show on my list of programs as installed.

[truemlp_fan98 20]

I asked my Uncle who works at the TechDesk for Land's End (They're a catalog company they sell suits) and he said you sound like you're in a big old mess. He says to format the computer

[Veylon 255]

I'll second the reformat suggestion. Pull everything you want off, startup the computer with advanced boot options (hit F8 a lot from bios until the menu pops up) and pick "Repair your computer". From there you can pick the factory restore which will wipe out your entire hard drive, thus killing whatever it is that's giving you problems, and reinstall windows fresh.

 

I just did a Vista box just a couple weeks ago; it was fairly painless and only took a couple hours.

 

Again, though, make sure you get everything you want off the computer first, as reformatting is the nuclear option and will destroy any data on the computer.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,837]

You have a very aggressive virus that is blocking out your anti-virus. All of the error messages you would get on your browser are fakes that the virus itself is making pop-up to trick you (Most likely to stop you from looking for a solution online). If you don't find a way to manually remove it I'd either format or have a PC repair shop remove the virus.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Harmonic Revelations

[Just some guy 1,070]

I third the notion of formatting your hard drive.Go get an external one or something that can hold the stuff you wanna save and then format.

 

If you're using free anti-virus software,I'd suggest using avast!.It's very lightweight and a very good anti-virus software,plus it has a sandbox where it can run files and not have it screw up your comp.While some programs won't work in the sandbox,if you don't have a good gut feeling about it,you can always run it within the sandbox.

[Yourmomsponies 444]

You have a very aggressive virus that is blocking out your anti-virus. All of the error messages you would get on your browser are fakes that the virus itself is making pop-up to trick you. If you don't find a way to manually remove it I'd either format or have a PC repair shop remove the virus.

Could be.

But before you Format it look through your library for script and programs that are unnecessary or not system files if you dont recognize it delete it. Then run Ccleaner and use the "erase free space" function to actually erase what you deleted. 

On a hard drive when you 'delete' something it just marks it as free space to be overwritten with new data. When you use the 'erase free space' It completely erases the data marked as 'free space'. 

[Zygen 6,066]

I third the notion of formatting your hard drive.Go get an external one or something that can hold the stuff you wanna save and then format.

 

If you're using free anti-virus software,I'd suggest using avast!.It's very lightweight and a very good anti-virus software,plus it has a sandbox where it can run files and not have it screw up your comp.While some programs won't work in the sandbox,if you don't have a good gut feeling about it,you can always run it within the sandbox.

 

 

You have a very aggressive virus that is blocking out your anti-virus. All of the error messages you would get on your browser are fakes that the virus itself is making pop-up to trick you (Most likely to stop you from looking for a solution online). If you don't find a way to manually remove it I'd either format or have a PC repair shop remove the virus.

 

 

I'll second the reformat suggestion. Pull everything you want off, startup the computer with advanced boot options (hit F8 a lot from bios until the menu pops up) and pick "Repair your computer". From there you can pick the factory restore which will wipe out your entire hard drive, thus killing whatever it is that's giving you problems, and reinstall windows fresh.

 

I just did a Vista box just a couple weeks ago; it was fairly painless and only took a couple hours.

 

Again, though, make sure you get everything you want off the computer first, as reformatting is the nuclear option and will destroy any data on the computer.

 

 

I asked my Uncle who works at the TechDesk for Land's End (They're a catalog company they sell suits) and he said you sound like you're in a big old mess. He says to format the computer

 

 

Could be.

But before you Format it look through your library for script and programs that are unnecessary or not system files if you dont recognize it delete it. Then run Ccleaner and use the "erase free space" function to actually erase what you deleted. 

On a hard drive when you 'delete' something it just marks it as free space to be overwritten with new data. When you use the 'erase free space' It completely erases the data marked as 'free space'. 

 

 

 

If I really have this serious of a problem that I need to reformat then I'm gonna have to ask. Do I need to make sure I have a new OS ready to install or a backup of the OS somewhere?

 

I have a backup harddrive that I could use, however if it just does its manual backup is that going to carry over any virus type stuff on accident? Should i be 100% manually selecting what I want and putting it there?

 

I really don't want to reformat or anything, because its proably going to take forever, but if I really have to I guess theres no option.

Also I have no idea what I'd specifically be looking for and where if I was looking for programs or stuff that shouldn't be there.

 

If I do have to reformat I'm probably gonna have to try sometime tomorrow, but if it is possible I'd like to avoid the option since it sounds somewhat dangerous and time consuming, so is this really a good idea?

[Just some guy 1,070]

If you are going to format it,then yeah,you're gonna need an OS disc or system recovery disc(s) that came with your computer,unfortunately.

 

If you have to save something,then save it,but it's best to delete everything if you don't know the exact cause(s) of your problem.Then carefully re-install what you consider necessities,slowly installing everything you used to have.Major pain in the ass,but it's either that or a comp that is infected with all sorts of stuff.

 

On the bright side,in this day and age,there might be viable alternatives.I'd suggest the formatting as a last resort and try to look for other solutions online or something.

[Creamy Arty 6,252]

Ok well I got rid of my virus programs from the program list, and then I installed CC cleaner. I cleaned my computer of like 4 Gigs of junk files, then I got rid of like 3000+ Registry errors.

Then I installed security essentials, but it won't run for some reason.. And then I checked security center and it says that both mcaffe and security center are running..

It says they're both apparently on which means they're installed? But I deleted them with the uninstall... .

 

Any ideas? I got nothing, I can't toggle either. On or off. And it doesn't seem to show on my list of programs as installed.

I have some ideas, but nothing I would want to suggest to somebody else, much less do myself. Given the persistence of your problems and the age of your machine, going with a format and fresh install of Windows as suggested above would be the best course of action. Getting started with a clean slate will get you better performance than any amount of cleaning up you might do at this point.

 

If you don't have any disks that may have come with the computer, you might have a recovery partition on your hard drive instead. OEMs have started putting a separate partition on new computers in the past few years in lieu of physical disks to house all of that stuff. If you pull up My Computer (or just "Computer" these days) and see a relatively small partition with a name like "RECOVERY" or something, that would be it. It might be activated by something they put in your Start menu, or you might need to reboot and hit a certain key.

 

The good side of doing that is you'll have a clean system, so to speak, and all of your drivers will be reinstalled automatically. The unfortunate side is that all of that crapware nobody needs but Dell and every other OEM put on computers will be back, including McAfee. However, uninstalling all of it should be easier after a fresh install.

[Veylon 255]

If I really have this serious of a problem that I need to reformat then I'm gonna have to ask. Do I need to make sure I have a new OS ready to install or a backup of the OS somewhere?

 

I have a backup harddrive that I could use, however if it just does its manual backup is that going to carry over any virus type stuff on accident? Should i be 100% manually selecting what I want and putting it there?

 

I really don't want to reformat or anything, because its proably going to take forever, but if I really have to I guess theres no option.

Also I have no idea what I'd specifically be looking for and where if I was looking for programs or stuff that shouldn't be there.

 

If I do have to reformat I'm probably gonna have to try sometime tomorrow, but if it is possible I'd like to avoid the option since it sounds somewhat dangerous and time consuming, so is this really a good idea?

Actually, you (probably) already do have an OS ready to go, so no need to find a disc. Open up "My Computer" and see if there's a drive called "Recovery". That drive is your backup disk and contains everything you need to do a reinstall.

 

Viruses need to run to do anything. If they're just sitting around in data, they're inert. Just have your antivirus scan everything and that's the best you can do. You should select everything manually, but if your backup drive is huge, feel free to copy everything. That's what I did.

 

As for the danger, if you really feel worried, have someone who knows this stuff walk through it with you. Or watch YouTube videos of other people doing it. There's lots of tutorials as well.

[Zygen 6,066]

I have some ideas, but nothing I would want to suggest to somebody else, much less do myself. Given the persistence of your problems and the age of your machine, going with a format and fresh install of Windows as suggested above would be the best course of action. Getting started with a clean slate will get you better performance than any amount of cleaning up you might do at this point.

 

If you don't have any disks that may have come with the computer, you might have a recovery partition on your hard drive instead. OEMs have started putting a separate partition on new computers in the past few years in lieu of physical disks to house all of that stuff. If you pull up My Computer (or just "Computer" these days) and see a relatively small partition with a name like "RECOVERY" or something, that would be it. It might be activated by something they put in your Start menu, or you might need to reboot and hit a certain key.

 

The good side of doing that is you'll have a clean system, so to speak, and all of your drivers will be reinstalled automatically. The unfortunate side is that all of that crapware nobody needs but Dell and every other OEM put on computers will be back, including McAfee. However, uninstalling all of it should be easier after a fresh install.

Hm. Ok well I've been trying to get other virus programs on, but I'm not having much luck with getting them to reinstall.

I looked at my computer and found the recovery drive on it, I also found a program that says "Pc restore" Would that be it? It says it restores you computer to factory condition. Would that remove my OS?

 

As of this moment I don't think I really have a good idea where my OS disk is or anything, but its possible I could look for it.

 

I'm a bit iffy on doing anything risky seeing as I don't wanna screw my computer up even more by making it flat out not work anyways. I guess that would somewhat defeat the purpose of trying to fix it .

 

Actually, you (probably) already do have an OS ready to go, so no need to find a disc. Open up "My Computer" and see if there's a drive called "Recovery". That drive is your backup disk and contains everything you need to do a reinstall.

 

Viruses need to run to do anything. If they're just sitting around in data, they're inert. Just have your antivirus scan everything and that's the best you can do. You should select everything manually, but if your backup drive is huge, feel free to copy everything. That's what I did.

 

As for the danger, if you really feel worried, have someone who knows this stuff walk through it with you. Or watch YouTube videos of other people doing it. There's lots of tutorials as well.

Yeah I have the recovery, however I'm going to be unable to pin point where the virus is considering my virus program doesn't work. Thats actually the main problem, none of them work correctly for whatever reason.

 

I have a 320 Gig backup , so I have a pretty decent sized backup. It can pretty easily fit basically all my stuff, I may not move everything though.

 

If I do decide to try and do this I'll certainly get my Ipod and get a youtube video to follow along with.

[Just some guy 1,070]

I'm sorry to go off on a tangent here,but...holy shit you don't need discs anymore!?I remember I had to use those on my old comp and thought I lost the discs for this new one!Technology is truly amazing...

 

Scratch my post,follow those two fellows posts.Though I still think it's better to delete everything so that you know for sure that the infected file(s) were erased in the process.Not entirely sure if the virus could also screw up your external hard drive,but I personally rather be safe than sorry.That's just my two cents on that topic.

Edited January 6, 2013 by CaptainBlue808

[Zygen 6,066]

I'm sorry to go off on a tangent here,but...holy shit you don't need discs anymore!?I remember I had to use those on my old comp and thought I lost the discs for this new one!Technology is truly amazing...

 

Scratch my post,follow those two fellows posts.Though I still think it's better to delete everything so that you know for sure that the infected file(s) were erased in the process.Not entirely sure if the virus could also screw up your external hard drive,but I personally rather be safe than sorry.That's just my two cents on that topic.

Well, to be totally fair I'm probably going to keep stuff only that I really have to keep that isn't really program related or important to me, because alot of the programs I could probably reinstall, and to be fair I don't think any of that has been infected with the virus, and I even more doubt that anything that isn't directly a program is infected.

 

I'm not sure I want to go ahead and remove everything though, i guess if the problem persists I'll have to, it all depends on what happens.

 

It is pretty awesome though that you don't need the disk. I wasn't aware of this at all.. Here I thought that my disk was important, but if this is the case then well.. What exactly is the disk I use to have for? .